1. Field of the Invention
The present technology relates to casino table and electronic video wagering games based on playing cards, particularly casino games based on blackjack, and most particularly casino table card games that may have a modified deck of playing cards.
2. Background of the Art
Blackjack or Twenty-One is a card game that is played on a live casino gaming table, on a video table, on-line through casino/gaming network connections and on a video gaming machine. The most popular method of play is with a live dealer and a number of players (usually up to a maximum of seven because of physical limitations on table size) at a table. Where there are seven player stations, each of the stations or positions is equally spaced around the tabletop. The dealer is positioned at one side of the table and players are positioned at an opposite, arcuate, semicircle or curved edge of the table, which is approximately semicircular in its most common form. A wagering area for placement of wagers and for receiving cards is provided at each player position, usually in the form of a printed circle identifying where wagers or cards are to be placed. To begin play of the games of Blackjack or Twenty-One, the dealer is provided with one or more (typically 1, 2, 6 or 8 decks) shuffled decks of cards. These decks may now be continuously shuffled to provide an unlimited supply of cards. These may be standard playing card decks, or modified decks according to the rules of particular games. A player places money or chips to identify the size of a wager to enter the game. Upon placement of a wager by players, the dealer provides each player that has made a wager with two initial cards. These cards may be provided with both cards face down, one card face down and another face-up, or with both cards face-up. The degree of display of a player's hand (in a casino version of the game where players compete with a dealer) has no consequence or influence on the play or outcome of the game. This is the player's preliminary hand. At or about the same time, the dealer is also provided with two cards (with one card shown face-up).
The player evaluates the player's initial hand, and where a dealer's card is displayed, against the partially revealed dealer's hand. The player then evaluates how the player's hand will be played and how wagering will continue based on the assessment.
In the play of Blackjack or Twenty-One, one or more standard decks of cards typically are used. An ace dealt to a player has a point value of either “1” or “11” at the election of the player; a face card (jack, queen or king) has a point value of “10” and each of the remaining cards (“2” through “10”) have a point value equal to what is alternatively referred to as the numerical face value or number value of the card. Point values of cards held by the player are added together to obtain a player total point value. The suits of cards in a standard blackjack game have no special value and are not used in scoring hands. A dealer total point value is obtained in a similar manner, with an ace required to be a count of eleven when the player's count on a hand would be 17, 18, 19, 20 or 21.
After the wagers are placed within the imprinted circle, the player and the dealer are each dealt a hand comprised of two cards from the same shuffled deck(s). The cards of the player's hand are dealt face-up, partially revealed or face-down. A first (not necessarily first in order of dealing) card of the player's hand is dealt face-down. A second one of the player's hand is dealt face-up.
Whenever the player's face-up card is either an ace or has a point value of “10”, the dealer ascertains the point value of the face-down card without revealing it to the player unless the dealer total point value is “21”. When the first two cards of the dealer hand cause the dealer total point value to be “21”, the dealer is said to have blackjack whereupon the dealer turns the face-down card face up. Under the circumstance of the dealer having a blackjack, the dealer wins against all players, except those who also have a blackjack, where a push or tie is declared. Similarly, when the two cards of the player hand causes the player total point value to be “21”, the player is said to have blackjack, and that player immediately wins against the dealer, unless the dealer also has a two-card hand point count of 21, another blackjack.
When the dealer has blackjack, the dealer wins the wager with two exceptions. A first exception occurs when the dealer's face up card is an ace and the player places a separate and additional wager (up to a maximum of one-half the amount of the initial game wafer) representing an insurance bet. When the dealer does not have blackjack, the player loses the insurance bet. When the dealer has blackjack, the insurance wager is paid off to the player as 2:1 and the insurance bet is returned to the player.
The second exception to the dealer winning with a blackjack occurs when the player also has blackjack. In that case, the player's wager is a push, and is returned to the player. The second exception is just one example of when the player hand and the dealer hand have the same total point value and is referred to as a push or tie.
When the player has a blackjack and the dealer does not, the player wins the wager. When neither the dealer nor the player has blackjack, the player then has four options. A first option is to have the count of the player's hand augmented by at least one additional card (referred to as a “hit”). The player may elect to have successive hits until the player total point value reaches a point count where the player wants to stay or where the count exceeds “21” and the player has broken or busted. When the total point value of a hand exceeds “21” it is said to bust or break. The player loses the wager when the player hand busts. Therefore, busting or breaking is a catastrophic termination of play of the player.
A second option is not to have the player hand augmented by any additional cards (referred to as a “stand”). The player may elect stand at any time that the player hand has not busted, including with the initial two-card hand dealt to the player at the beginning of the game.
A third option, referred to as doubling down, permits the player to double the wager and receive one additional card. For example, if the player has a point count where no card dealt to the player would cause the hand to break, and the dealer displays a weak card (e.g., 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6) as the expose card, the player may double the initial wager and limit hits to a single card. This is ordinarily done when the player's initial count in the first two cards are 9, 10 or 11.
A fourth option is available when the player's initial hand is comprised of two cards that are a pair or of the same point count (e.g., such as a pair of nines, or each of the two cards has a value of ‘10’, a 10 and a jack, or a pair of queens, for example). The player may split the pair into first and second player hands. An additional card is dealt to the first player hand (which is then played as a regular hand, with similar options as described above being available in the play of the first split hand). After play has been concluded with the first split hand, a card is dealt to the second split card to form the second player hand. The second split hand is then played to conclusion in the manner of a regular Blackjack hand or Twenty-One hand. In most casinos, the player is given the added opportunity of creating even more hands by splitting if either or both of the second two cards dealt to the player also has the same number count as the split pair of cards. There is normally a limit of 3 or 4 total hands that may be created by splitting cards, however, the number of splits possible may be any amount desired by the house. There may also be rules that aces can be split only once and that aces may receive only a single card (no subsequent hits) when aces are split from the initial hand.
The decision to hit or stand is made with an objective of causing the player total point value to be closer to “21” than the dealer total point value without busting. It should be understood that central factors in making the decision are the dealer's face-up card and the player's two-card total point value.
After all of the players stand the dealer's face-down card is turned face-up, whereby both cards of the dealer hand are face-up. When the dealer's total point value is less than “17,” the dealer must hit until the dealer total point value is at least “17.” When a hit causes the dealer hand to bust and the player hand has not busted, the player wins the wager. A ‘soft’ 17, (where a player's ace counted as 11 contributes to the point total of 17), may be hit again at the option of house rules. It should be understood that when the dealer's initial hand includes an ace and a six, for example, it is referred to as a soft “17” because the ace causes the exemplary hand to have alternative point values of “7” and “17”. Usually, the dealer hand cannot be hit when it is the soft “17”.
When neither the player hand nor the dealer hand busts and the dealer total point value exceeds the player total point value, the dealer wins and vice versa. When there is a push, there is no winner; the initial wagers representative of the bets are returned to the player. This describes the essentially standard method of play of the game of Blackjack or Twenty-One. As with any form of entertainment, variations, extensions or improvements of the game are often attempted or described.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,615,888 (Lofink) discloses the game known as “Spanish 21”™ blackjack in which all 10's are removed from the deck, (leaving only 48 cards, including all Jacks, Queens and kings) in the deck, and the payout on Blackjacks may be adjusted.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,080,839 (Shackleford) describes a method and computer readable storage medium to play an improved variation of blackjack. The method includes (a) receiving an original wager for the blackjack game; (b) dealing a player's hand and a dealer's hand; (c) finishing the game; and (d) if the player's hand ties the dealer's hand then the player wins a payout from the original wager.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,776,416 (Jackson) discloses a wagering game is played with one or more standard decks of playing cards. Each deck comprises a) 52 cards or b) 48 cards without 10's. The method comprises: each player placing at least one wager to play in the game against a dealer; each player receiving two initial cards and the dealer receiving two initial cards; each player exercising optional rights to take additional cards, (hits) until the player stands with a point count of 21 or below, or each player exercising optional rights to take additional cards until a point count in a player's hand exceeds a point count of 21, the player's hand remaining in-play even after a point count in excess of 21 is obtained; and the dealer taking hits according to conventional rules of blackjack so that the dealer total count according to the rules reaches at least a soft 17, at least a hard 17, or a count in excess of 21; wherein, if both the player's hand and the dealer's hand exceed a point count total in excess of 21, rules determine whether the player's hand wins, ties or loses against the dealer's hand. Hands of 21 or under always wins over a bust hand. In ties of point counts of 21 and/or below, either convention rules or special rules determine whether the dealer wins or ties the player's hand. In addition, the player may receive in excess of 3:2 for a blackjack.